FALSE: There is no evidence that men are likely to die 10 years after being circumcised
The post claims that this is part of a conspiracy to ‘wipe out’ Africans, but the report mentioned as the basis for this claim does not exist
A Facebook post claiming that men are likely to die 10 years after being circumcised is FALSE.
The post was shared on a page called “Expert Analysis Uganda” and says that research conducted in the United States indicates that those who go through circumcision are likely to die 10 years later. The study was done by Deltas Clare, an American non-governmental organisation.
The post claims that the report with this research was published by WikiLeaks, a media platform that publishes leaks and classified content from anonymous sources.
Additionally, the post claims that billions of dollars have been pumped into campaigns to promote circumcision in Africa, and states that those doing this have ‘intentions of wiping out the black race’.
The claim has been reposted multiple times by different media houses such as The Spy Uganda website, Swazi Observer and on the Malawian Eye’s Facebook page.
However, a search of the report by Delta Clare on the WikiLeaks website does not present any results. Additionally, a Google search of the organisation doesn’t yield any results but shows multiple fact-checks done by other fact-checking organisations on the same claim. These include AfricaCheck and Malawi24, who also found the claim false.
A Google reverse image search shows that the photo attached to the post was first shared in 2017, as human rights activists protested American Academy of Pediatrics’ circumcision policy by an organisation called the Bloodstained Men. It was also featured in an article by the eNews Park Forest news site.
According to the World Health Organization, which recommends the exercise, there is compelling evidence that male circumcision reduces the risk of heterosexually acquired HIV infection in men by approximately 60 percent.
Additionally, the National Library of Medicine reports that evaluation of current evidence indicates the health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks.
PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook post claiming that circumcised men are likely to die after 10 years and finds it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker Pius Enywaru and edited by PesaCheck Deputy Editor Enock Nyariki.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Eric Mugendi.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water/sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.
